First death in Dominican Republic from infectious disease after Haitian tragedy

posted on: Feb 2 2010 12:51 by Royston. Viewed 267 times.


The death from meningococcal meningitis was announced at the weekend of a Dominican Pastor recently returned from Haiti. The minister for Public Health, Bautista Rojas Gomez said this was was the first case of an infectious disease in the Dominican Republic directly related to the aftermath of the tragedy in Haiti. He said the Epidemiological Surveillance System (Sistema de Vigilancia Epidemiológico) of the country remains on constant alert to the possibility of disease outbreaks.

He said that all household contacts and everyone accompanying the evangelical pastor, received  treatment to prevent the disease.  The Ministry of Health of Puerto Rico has also been alerted because the pastor had been traveling with a Puerto Rican Mission
Rojas Gomez said that the country will continue to offer assistance in national hospitals to Haitian patients who require care and said that so far Dominican Republic has given medical assistance to over 30 thousand victims of the tragedy, including more than 6,000 hospitalisations.

Rojas addressed the issue during a meeting with the Minister of Health of Ecuador, Caroline Chan, who is in the country with the Dominican authorities to co-ordinate the support that Ecuador will be giving Haitian people, having observed personally the reality of the tragedy.

Chan said a team of 18 Ecuadorian health professionals are in Fond Parisien  helping with health care. She said that currently there are many organizational problems in Haiti, noting the response of the Dominican Republic to the tragedy. She said that Ecuador seeks to strengthen ties with the Dominican Republic to co-ordinate the changing needs of Haiti.